Small Successes - A Day Late

So yesterday I missed the Small Successes wagon over at Faith and Family Live!. So here's to the small things that add up....

1. My small successes are late because I spent yesterday enjoying my birthday and dealing with a child who was having an allergic reaction to medication. I think the success here is that we've finally figured out the allergy and I didn't let the um-teenth trip to the doctor ruin my happy birthday (not that the small success were late...)

2. On Wednesday John and I made it to 3 appointments before noon. I personally think that impressive for me alone...but with a 10 month old...that deserves some kudos!

3. I've had a sick baby since Sunday. First with pneumonia; now with an allergic reaction to the meds...And I've still managed to get a decent amount of sleep. (Thanks to my extremely laid-back child and a husband who has gotten up a little earlier than normal for a few days.)

No Longer Contagious - Now We're Just Itchy!

Great news! The doctor confirmed that we are no longer contagious with pneumonia, so we went to breakfast with the MOMS club this morning to celebrate my birthday.

Bad news! We left breakfast with a spreading rash (we've had the rash for a few days) that was now sneaking down John's arms and into his "diapered region."

Important news! The doctor/pharmacist team has confirmed that John is allergic to everything in the penicillin family including it's derivatives, cephalosporens. Sweet! Cause that doesn't complicate things at all....

Blah!

So I'm trying to figure out how a 10 month old who stays at home with his mom gets pneumonia during the middle of August...any thoughts?
At least now we know what the high fever was trying to tell us. The pneumonia has set in right behind John's heart in his upper left chest cavity which is why no one could "hear" it in his chest. John's on a high does of antibiotics and we're monitoring his breaths/min and his temperature. Dr. Herman was great in catching the pneumonia;John had very few other symptoms (an occasional cough here or there, but with his nasty allergies that has been almost constant). We've got orders to take him to the hospital if his breaths start to get rapid or shallow and call the office daily with temperature and breaths/min. We're also supposed to be on the look out for purple lips and limbs...let's hope we don't get to that point....

The Good and The Bad

We've been adjusting John's sleep schedule recently. Over the past month he's been getting harder and harder to put down to sleep for his naps and at night (especially when he wakes up during the night!). So after some diligent online research, I read that most sleep problems in young toddlers result from the child being overtired. That being said, we moved up nap times, moved up bed time and adjusted our night time routine when he wakes up at night. By the end of the first day, we (and by we, I mean John) had mastered going to sleep without a bottle and without any holding, going to back to sleep on his own when he woke up at night, and went from sleeping 9 hours at night to sleeping 12! What an accomplishment!!!

Now for the not so great news...John's been running a fever of 102.5 all day long. He's physically roasting when you hold him, but he doesn't want to be put down much. Tonight when get came out of the bathtub his lips were purple and he was shivering from head to toe. Poor kid! Obviously, we've been dosing him with Tylenol all day and resorted to giving him a dose of Motrin right before bed. I have the distinct feeling we'll be calling the pediatrician tomorrow morning....

Spaghetti-O's Rock!

Family Is Always Too Far Away

I haven't had the chance to blog about our trip to San Antonio yet. I was so excited to post our small successes that week, that I failed to post anything else about our trip. We had a great time in San Anton with the family and were blessed that John's aunt and uncle made the lengthy drive from Dallas to visit. The real purpose of the trip was to check in on Matt's father who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. The best part--we found him in great spirits and feeling pretty well considering the hormone treatments he's on. The trip was equally as important for us, as I think we both had knots in our stomach for the last month that were only going to be resolved by a hug from Dad. Cancer is an amazing disease. I'm never ceased to be amazed by the people who face it head on, with a positive attitude, and with the faith that God has a plan for them. Dad was originally told that his cancer was terminal, but the oncologist seems much more optimistic.

John's been blessed to have all 4 of his grandparents and 5 of his great-grandparents. I never felt like I missed anything not knowing my great-grandparents. And I definitely heard lots of stories about both of my grandfathers, who passed away before I was born. But I know how lucky John is to have the chance to spend time with these family patriarchs.

I can't help thinking about the great times I had playing with my grandmothers. My maternal grandma passed away when I was young, but I still remember many sleepovers at her house, being picked up from pre-school and wisked off to her office just down the road for a lunch of bologna and ketchup, and begging for pocket change to get a treat from the ice cream truck that drove down her street everyday during the summer. My paternal grammy and I became closer much later in life. I remember when I first learned I was pregnant she was in the ICU and I had such trepidation that she wouldn't make it to meet my little baby. Now, John and I enjoy taking her lunch periodically and sharing our new talents with her as he grows.

Matt's grandparents are all still around, so John has gotten to spend time with them whenever we make it to San Antonio. We are trying to take as many pictures as we can to help us remember these times with them. Trips to the pool for water aerobics with great-grandma Warren and coffee at Target with great-granddad Warren are always winners. Sitting with great-grandpa Garcia and wearing the clothes and hats that great-grandma Garcia makes for us are great memories.

Really, what it comes down to is that family and love is what makes the world tick. I wish we could live closer to both sets of family. I'm grateful that we have the means to visit Matt's family often and I'm looking forward to seeing them in October when they come up for John's birthday. Bottom line, no matter how close you live to your family...they're always too far away.

We miss you!

A Mother...

A mother is the most important person on earth. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral -- a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body.

-- Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

Rock On, Mom!

It's Thursday! That means it's time to recognize the small successes of the week so that I can add them up to one big triumph!

1. After being postponed several times by the contractor doing our roof, I asked if it could be finished by Friday since we are having company over tomorrow. He gathered 10 guys to come on a Sunday and do the roof in one day. That means we had 3 less days of banging and pounding - so John's naps were only disturbed for one day!

2. I researched some sleep training techniques this week and have started implementing a few basic concepts with John. They seem to be working. He slept for 11 hours last night, waking only once and he soothed himself back to sleep without me! And this morning's nap was spookily easy to get him down for. He's in his crib now for the afternoon nap---but he's playing, not sleeping..although I guess the alternative would be crying (these are small successes, remember?!?)

3. The carpets are clean. I'm not talking vacuumed, I'm talking Stanley Steemer came in and really cleaned them. This is a success because I took the time to call them, empty all our shelves and tables of miscellaneous items, and stayed off the carpet for several hours while it dried.

Bonus #4: I called several doctors, found one who was accepting new patients, and scheduled my annual check-up. I've been meaning to do this for at least 4 weeks---but now it's off the to-do list! Next week's small success will be having made it to the appointment on time!

Head over to Faith and Family Live! to check out other mom's successes for the week!

Oh If Wishing Made It So...

John wants to walk. He pulls up on everything, cruises around the furniture and is now trekking up and down the hallways with his clacking alligator walker. Just let go little boy...you can do it!

Small Successes....

It's that time again when us Moms take the time to look back on this week's small successes, because it reminds us that the small things can add up to one BIG triumph!

1. After spending 8 days in San Antonio visiting Matt's family and arriving home at 9:30pm last night...we are unpacked and caught up on laundry! (And it's only 9:27am!) It helped that I came home with only one load of laundry to do because I did a few loads at my in-laws house.

2. While in San Antonio this week, we managed to catch up with soooo many people that we don't see often enough. It was great spending time with mom and dad (a.k.a. grandma and granddad). But equally as exciting was getting morning coffee with John's great-grandparents, having Aunt Megan and Uncle Chris come down from Dallas with good friend Stephanie for the weekend, spending an evening with Sanguinetti's, Zera's, and Kiolbassa's, enjoying John's first-ever visit with his great Aunt Dana, two lunch outings with Lacey and newborn Anthony, and sharing fajitas at the house with great grandparents, Erra, Hunter, Mark, Kyle, Aunt Gloria and Uncle Jim. Seriously! We should go to Texas more often!

3. With all the activity and visitors, John's naps were short...if not non-existent. While one would think this would result in a baby that is so exhausted they sleep soundly all night, my son chooses to respond by waking up every few hours and refusing to go back to sleep (I guess he's afraid he'll miss something!) So with the multiple wake up calls and the hour long process of getting John back to sleep, I went against my better judgement and sacrificed my sleep quality to let my baby sleep between mom and dad and stick his feet up in my ribs.

Small Successes!

It's time again to post my weekly "small" achievements because we all know that the small successes in our everyday life add up to one BIG triumph....

1. Our family enjoyed a wonderful dinner out at Al's Steakhouse, even though they looked at us like we were crazy when we asked for a highchair. Apparently they don't have highchairs at this restaurant, but we had our portable make-shift highchair with us. We are not deterred!

2. Despite being a mobile petri dish, our family isn't letting illness dictate our vacation fun! Mom has pink eye in both eyes, dad's allergies are in overdrive thanks to Texas trees, and John has ear infections in both ears and pink eye in one eye....if you want to invite us over to contaminate your house-just let us know.... :)

3. We flew from St. Louis to San Antonio on Tuesday with one layover. John was awake for the first 40 minutes of the first flight, then he fell asleep on the seat between mom and dad. He slept through the landing, deplaning, the walk to the next gate, boarding, take-off, and landing...opening his eyes only when we parked at the gate in San Antonio. (This is probably more John's success than mine, but sleeping babies on planes are God sent-especially when they have double ear infections and pink eye)

Favorite July Picture

Joys of Being a Toddler

Today we got our first "big boy" scrape on our chin! While helping Daddy wash the car, John leaned against the car door. Who knew that the car door moves when you push against it? And since John's balance isn't great, he bit it face first into the concrete driveway...tears followed...

In the past week we've been enjoying the days of toddlerhood. By this I mean, John gets into everything! He loves to empty purses and wallets, clean out his diaper bag, rearrange Grandpa's bill filing system, clear the coffee table of all magazines and papers, and periodically knock all the diapering supplies off the end of the bed. In addition to this new talent, we've also been recipients of all the bumps and bruises that come with being an unstable toddler who loves to pull up on everything. It's now a great game to stand up under the dining room table, bump our head on the underside of the table, sit back down, stare up at the table with a "how dare you" look, and try to stand up again---hitting our head again! (We'll be enrolling him in the school for the gifted next week...)

However, with all the bumps, bruises and messes...Mom's been excited to have someone who loves to sit and "fold" laundry with her, chases her around the kitchen and "gathers" the pots and pans out of the cabinets for her, and is willing to crawl around the family room while Mom posts blogs about the "Joys of Being a Toddler"

Loving every minute of it.....